Our Team

Alyra Biotech has built a strong international team with expertise across gynecology, pain medicine, laboratory science, immunopharmacology, drug-eluting medical device manufacture, intellectual property, regulatory approvals and global pharma commercialisation.

We are based in Adelaide, Australia with our Tech Team based in Turku, Finland.

Alyra Biotech is the recipient of a CUREator Grant funded by Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund, and receives manufacturing support through the South Australian Government. 

We own 100% of our Intellectual Property.

 

Alyra Biotech collaborates with the following organisations:

  • The University of Adelaide
  • The Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia
  • TekCyte Ltd
  • Brandon BioCatalyst (CUREator Grant Program)
  • PARC Research Centre
 
  • Prestidge Group, University of South Australia
  • FBRice
  • SBE Australia
  • PreClin Apps
  • The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

A/Prof Susan Evans
MBBS, FRANZCOG, FFPMANZCA, GAICD, PhD

Founder, CEO, Gynecologist, Pain Physician

A/Prof Susan Evans is a Gynecologist, Laparoscopic Surgeon, Pain Medicine Physician, PhD from Adelaide, Australia.

Dr Evans is the founder of Alyra Biotech, author of the book ‘Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain’, Chair of the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia, Member of the Advisory Committee for Australia’s National Action Plan for Endometriosis, Co-developer of the Periods, Pain and Endometriosis (PPEP-Talk) Schools Program, Co-author of the policy paper ‘The Pelvic Pain Report: The $6Billion Woman and the $600Million Girl’,

Dr Evans completed her PhD in the neuroimmune aetiologies of period pain, pelvic pain and endometriosis. In 2023 she was a finalist for Australian of the Year (SA).

Prof. Mark Hutchinson
BSc (Hons), PhD

Neuroimmunopharmacologist

Professor Hutchinson is a Professor within the Adelaide Medical School and is the President-elect of Science Technology Australia.

Professor Hutchinson returned to the University of Adelaide in 2009 as an NHMRC CJ Martin Research Fellow and established the Neuroimmunopharmacology Research Laboratory. From 2005 to 2009 Mark worked in the world leading laboratory of Prof Linda Watkins in the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Here he pioneered with Prof Watkins the research which led to the discovery of novel drug activity at innate immune receptors. Mark’s research has implicated the brain immune-like cells in the action of drugs of dependence and the negative side effects of pain treatments. Mark has published over 130 papers in journals and refereed conference proceedings.

As director of the Centre for Nanoscale Biophotonics, and ARC Centre of Excellence, Mark oversaw $42M of funding committed for 7 years, headquartered at The University of Adelaide, with nodes at Macquarie University, Sydney University, RMIT, Melbourne, and global partners at universities and companies in Europe and the US. 

Dr Annalisa Jenkins

Strategic Advisor

Dr Annalisa Jenkins is a life science thought leader. She was previously Head of Global R and D at Merck Serono and SVP Head of Global Medical at Bristol Myers Squibb. More recently she led Dimension Therapeutics that she took through to a NASDAQ listing and a subsequent sale to Ultragenyx.

Professor Paul Rolan
MD, FRACP, FFPM (UK), FFPMANZCA

Clinical Pharmacologist, Drug Development Consultant

Paul is a clinical pharmacologist, drug developer and pain management physician. After obtaining specialist qualifications in general medicine and clinical pharmacology he spent two years as Director of Medicine at Cairns Base Hospital. Subsequently Paul joined the pharmaceutical industry in the UK, initially working for Wellcome Research Laboratories where he was Head of Clinical Pharmacokinetics. In 1994 he became Medical Director of Medeval, a clinical pharmacology contract research organisation spun out of the University of Manchester.

Under Paul’s leadership, Medeval became the largest clinical pharmacology contract research organisation in the United Kingdom. He was part of a management buy out team of the Company from the University and a subsequent trade sale three years later to ICON Clinical Research. He has been Principal Investigator in over 700 clinical research studies and has been an active Consultant, both to the pharmaceutical industry as well as an invited speaker to the FDA.

Paul returned to the University of Adelaide in 2005 as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and in 2014 was also Head of the School of Medical Sciences in 2014. He left the University in 2014 to take a full time post in the pharmaceutical industry and returned to the University as Director Of Innovation in 2016. His major clinical and academic interest is in chronic pain and headache, focusing on the development of biomarkers, evaluation of novel therapies and mechanisms of disease. Paul continues to advise on drug development for the international pharmaceutical industry including roles such as Chief Medical Officer and Director of Drug Development. Paul continues to work clinically in headache and pain management in both the public and private sectors.

Ms Kathryn Allen
BA(Acc), CA, CTAProfessor Paul Rolan

Business and Tax Consultant

Kathryn (Kathy) Allen is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser with over 30 years experience in providing tax and business advice to professionals and small to medium businesses across many industries. She is a director of accounting advisory firm Dewings Accountants, with a particular focus on accounting practice within the health care sector. Kathy works with a wide variety of professionals and businesses in this field.

Kathryn Allen is a Co-Founder, and was the Inaugural Chair of the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia. In these roles and in her current role as Treasurer and has helped drive and guide this charity through the difficult start-up phase. Her expertise has also guided the successful application and clinical implementation of government partnering within the Periods, Pain and Endometriosis (PPEP-Talk) Schools program with it’s focus on the pelvic pain needs of young women.

Kathryn has been Company Secretary of a manufacturing company and committee member a variety of associations within the not-for-profit sector. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered accountants in Australia and New Zealand, the Taxation Institute of Australia, Family Business Association and Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. 

Dr Karin Innes
PhD

Patent Attorney

Dr Karin Innes is an experienced Patent Attorney with FB Rice. Following completion of her PhD in Medical Biology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research she worked at Amgen Australia as a clinical research associate managing oncology clinical trials in all phases of development. In her current role she assists a broad range of clients in all facets of academia and industry with patent procurement and defence. Karin regularly advises on patent strategy, patentability and infringement as well as freedom to operate and due diligence analysis. Karin is a member of the Trans-Tasman Intellectual Property Attorney’s Board (TTIPAB) and committee member of The Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ). She has also been endorsed in the IAM Patent 1000 prosecution highly recommended list for last two years.

Mrs Rachael Tippett

Clinical Trials Co-ordinator

Mrs Rachael Tippett is a psychologist and scientist who has worked in the area of biopharma trials management, regulatory and administration for 23 years.

Ms Nina Stenroos

Intrauterine device bio-materials expert

Ms.Nina Stenroos has a very long (over 30 years) experience in Pharmaceutical industry in Finland.

She completed her M.Sc. studies in Turku University, where her focus was in Organic Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Pedagogy. Almost all her professional life she has worked at Bayer Oy (former Bayer-Schering, former Leiras), in Finland, focusing on the development of intrauterine devices for Womens Health.

Nina has a solid expertise of medical devices, polymer excipients and polymers like silicones. During her career, she has built up an extensive global network, including material suppliers, research centres and contract manufacturers. Additionally Nina had studies in leadership, like partial degree of eMBA from Turku School of Economics. She has used the acquired skills in different managerial positions as well as when collaborating external partners.

Dr Pirjo Kortesuo

Intrauterine device product development

Pirjo Kortesuo has 30 years experience in Pharmaceutical industry in Finland. 

She obtained her M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Turku and Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Helsinki, followed by Ph.D. studies at Orion Corporation, Finland.

Her research focused on the utilization of biodegradable silica matrix as a drug carrier system. Following the successful completion of her Ph.D., she transitioned to Bayer Oy (previously known as Bayer Schering Pharma and Leiras), where she dedicated a significant portion of her professional life.

At Bayer Oy, Pirjo primarily focused on the development of intrauterine devices (IUDs) for women’s health. She has a solid expertise of the entire product development process, from early feasibility and compatibility assessments to submission and transfer to production including the manufacturing of investigational medicinal products for clinical trials.

Additionally, Pirjo has a strong knowledge of regulatory and quality requirements for combination products. Throughout her career, Pirjo has established a wide network of connections with Finnish universities and research centers. Additionally she has also pursued studies in leadership at Bayer Academy.

Mr Harri Jukarainen

Intrauterine Polymer Drug Delivery
Harri Jukarainen graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology (nowadays Aalto University) from polymer chemistry and materials department.
 
He continued his studies with silicone polymers and elastomers at University of Cincinnati Ohio, thus becoming silicone polymer expert for Finnish company Leiras, whose IUS manufacturing now belongs to Bayer.  At Bayer he worked for Polymer Based Drug Delivery Platform overseeing several new innovative sustained drug delivery projects starting from R&D.
 
Harri has 30 years of experience in the field of pharmaceutical long term drug delivery systems – from monomers to excipients and final products.
 
Harri is Co-Founder of PreclinApps Oy, developing and manufacturing of polymer based DD systems for preclinical and veterinarian field. He is also leading the pharmaceutical development at ReBio Technologies, concentrating on long term ophthalmic drug delivery systems utilising proprietary biodegradable polymers.
 
 Harri is the inventor of over 30 issued patents and several publications in the field of medicinal long term drug delivery systems and medical devices.